Reading about child homelessness

This week I’ve read two long, intense articles about child homelessness — one published in the New York Times this past December, the other in the Miami New Times almost twenty years ago (1997). Neither were easy to read, though with the second one I actually had to take it slowly, paragraph by paragraph, looking away often to breathe so I wouldn’t cry. Warning: there are graphic details of child trauma, the kind of thing that will haunt you.

I don’t get especially sentimental about children, though I do think it’s a worse evil to betray, manipulate, or hurt a child than an adult — the same way it’s always worse to take advantage of those weaker than you. But these subjects — especially regarding home, transience, children fallen through the cracks, and storytelling — do grab me.